howzit ! here's my travelogue from this years tiki cental/tiki oasis road trip with my braddah travelingjones. once again, i'm putting this in collecting because it's all about collecting fantastic tiki art, great friends and wonderful memories.
part 1: tiki central
i picked jonesEy up at sfo the sunday before oasis. our first stop was trader vic's emeryville where we had lunch. i had the crab sandwich and it was great.
this was my favorite tiki there. then we went down to the kona club in oakland.
this maori mosaic made of shells is really cool.
behind the bar is the smoking volcano.
our next stop was forbidden island!
i always make sure to rub big benzart's tummy whenever i come in.
mahalo to jentiki for meeting us there.
we then headed to our hotel in sf, the mark hopkins! our room looked down on the entrance to the tonga room.
i'm sure this place was really cool at one time, but as jen pointed out you could see all the pipes used to make the rain storm. i guess they were covered at one time.(?) also the 70's disco band really sucked. jonesEy and i tried to ignore them and had a nice chat.
the next morning (mon) we went on a quest to see tiki bob and stumbled across this.
i'm sure all you bay area folks know about this, but it was a pleasant surprise to us. we went down the alley and saw the restaurant where trader vic's had been.
here's yellow bob. yuck!
on our way back to the car i was walking a little ahead of jonesEy. suddenly i heard a very loud splat. i turned to see a very surprised jonesEy covered in what must have been pelican, condor or possibly reindeer shit! i sprinted across the street to fetch some baby wipes and a bottle of water to help jonesEy get it off his face (!), inside his glasses (!), and all over his shirt. i'm glad jonesEy has a good sense of humor, cuz i could not stop laughing.
next we sped down 80 on our way to sactown.
here's a little game. see if you can identify pieces by these artists: tiki tony, crazy al, thorsten hasenkamm, kirby, kinny ruzic, miles thompson, buzzy, tipsy mcstagger, dave burke, kreepytiki, polynesiac, vantiki, tiki diablo, munktiki (kinda hard to see), onatiki (ric), 'ona tiki (cass and miles), kahaka, pooch, basement kahuna and gecko. damn i love this room. and yeah, i know i need to do something about the sprayed on ceiling! it was so much fun showing my tiki art and collections to somebody who loves it as much as jonesEy. i never know what kind of reaction i'll get when regular (read: non-tiki) peopo first see my house. some look around and say "oh, tiki mugs, ho hum" while others are fascinated and look at everything and ask many questions.
the next morning (tue) we lit out on our road trip. first stop: munktiki!
yes, paul kept a very close eye on me, watching my every move to make sure i didn't try to stick a rare prototype or test glaze down my pants. i didn't steal anything, but did buy some great stuff and was gifted a couple more by paul and miles. deba-deba showed up just as we had to leave to head down to glendale to meet hiphipahula (kelly) at damon's steakhouse. no pics from there, but mahalo to sistah kelly for the great conversation during dinner.
the next morning (wed) we made the pilgrimage to oceanic arts. we were lucky tiki diablo (danny) was there. danny is definitely working on island time, cuz it took him about an hour to buy 6 coconuts. that gave us a chance to chat with him, bob and leroy. i told leroy i was sorry i missed his retrospective. he said if we went to the forest lawn show we'd see some of his work. how fortunate! we had already planned to go that day.
next up little lost tiki's studio.
i think this is gonna have to be a must stop every year on our trip. jonesEy and i never get tired of looking at kinny's art and clowning with him. it was kinny's first chance to see my seated cannibal king tattoo in the flesh. it got even better when tikitastic (mark), megan, kim, cocoloco (maria), mai tai (bill) and squid (dave) showed up. after fawning over kinny's art for too long, but not long enough, all of us except kinny and squid headed to forest lawn.
jonesEy is pretty damn good at keeping secrets and never let me know his gecko tangaroa was in the show. by the time we got there we only had about 20 minutes until closing time. i wish we had more time to closely examine everything. the good part was; doug nason, the curator of the show, was there and gave us a rundown on some of his favorite pieces.
the gang at forest lawn. kim just loves posing for pics.
after checking into our hotel in la. we went to tiki ti to meet ocea otica (cass).
cass and his wife kay were there to greet us and gift us a couple of "witco zombie" pendants. very cool! soon i found out cass had pendants for all the tcers who came over to say hi. wow! he must have given away 20 or more. i said he should be asking $10 or so to finance a trip to oasis, but cass just said, nah, i just wanna make peopo happy. i see why tiki ti is so popular. the drinks, owners and customers are all tops. i don't drink, but i had a few tasty tropical punches. there must be some pics of cass that night, but unfortunately, i don't have any. cass said he was gonna take the subway(?) home, but we insisted on driving him. you're the best cass!
the next morning (thur) we were giddy with excitement as we headed to bosko's ranch in escondido!
some of you who were at bosko's presentation at oasis might remember me wisecracking that someone needed to do some urban archeology at his ranch. i was not kidding!
the awesome kapu tiki room.
the newer a-frame and the giant moai.
bosko is a palm afficianado. he has palms from all over the world. he told us one of them was extinct in the wild and only collectors had any now.
the ranch was like a surrealistic tiki wonderland.
i learned bosko went to art school with mark ryden. mark used to hang at the kapu tiki alot and this is a painting he did of bosko with his moai.
bosko and truus also gave us a tour of their home. i know they were busy preparing for oasis, so i really appreciate them giving us a couple of hours to explore the ranch and get to know them better. mahalo truus and bosko!
we headed back north to hb for the bamboo ben closing, but not really closing party. we crashed in about 2 hours early, greeted ben and mrs boo. ken (keigs) and heather pleasant were already there and we got to meet them. i asked bean (blake boo) where the good mexican eats were. he gave me precise directions to super mex. mahalo bean! when we got back the crowd was arriving.
tiki bong, spike and lucas ripping it up.
flounder in da house! it was cool meeting scott at ben's. i have 4 of his burlap coco joe's paintings and have wanted to meet him for a long time.
finally we headed to san diego and tiki oasis. we started the day in la, then escondido, then huntington beach, then san diego. a tiring day of trekking all around socal, but so worth the trip.
i see why buzzy is doing his oasis journal in several parts. i've probably spent about 3 hours on this today, but it's a labor of love.

I knew their was something more than I still needed that I didn't get from the Oasis pictures this year. Part of it was with Buzzy's posts but it must have been your Oasis follow up, two years running.

A read like this is really only achievable in a Tiki Magazine. This is better though cause their is way more pictures. Your posts are like a who's who in tiki as if it was a whole Tiki Magazine issue. My favorite Tiki Magazine cover/ issue was the Bosko issue (sorry I keep referring to T.M) and I never could get enough of Bosko from it. I've read it a few times over (and was surprised he was roommates in college with Mark Ryden) but didn't know Ryden painted that picture. Anyway, your pictures add to the whole story. Small pieces of Boskos property, I'm still trying to imagine how the big picture looks like.

love this image
As a mug guy, it blows my mind, as I bet it did yours.

mahalo guys! i need to point out that jonesEy took most of the pics. i was really lame with the camera this year. i'll be using some from wendy, freddie and buzzy too. i took a pic of the red mugs too, but jonesEy, being a pro, took a much better one. and yes, teakey, it definitely blew my mind!

hala bullhiki, i'm gonna let you write all my reviews from now on. thanks for the kind words. ben, one of these days i'll get that room tikified. i love your family. mahalo for the aloha spirit. say hi to bean for me. marlene, this is 2 years in a row i never saw you at oasis! where are you hiding? wendy, i hope we can get together soon. mahalo nicolas, rob and qv! rob, we can only hope heaven is that good!

Great pics and story Bullet and Jonessey.Great to see the pics after the
stories I heard about your trip when we were talking at Tiki Oasis.What a
cool tiki tour you both went on .Very cool to hear about your travels, and
all the people you meet along the way.I look forward to seeing your place
soon when I am in Northern Cal .
Cheers,
Trader Bill